This Is Why We Have Stupid Laws
About a week ago, I got in a discussion about parking. Another friend on Facebook posed this scenario: You live not too far from the airport and one day you look out the window to see a couple park in front of your neighbor's house, get their luggage out of the car, lock it up, then a cab comes to pick them up and they disappear. The friend expressed that he felt the situation was wrong somehow, but then listened to the arguments that the street is public and our property rights end with our property. There was a discussion where someone who likely does this chimed in that the people were doing nothing wrong and it inconvenienced no one, so why was everyone worried about it.
My arguments is the people doing this don't know if it's an inconvenience or not. How do you know if parking is a premium in that area? If you have a family with two parents who drive and 2 kids or more who also might drive, you're looking at the possibility of four cars for one house, and someone looking to get over on airport parking is taking up valuable space. The onus is also on the neighbors to provide security. There is no contact to do so, but the idea is that if "something happens" they will call the police, right? Tell me if this guy came back and his car was up on four milk crates with the radio and seats missing, the first thing he'd want is the police to question the neighbors about what they saw and why they didn't report it.
The argument was also that if they didn't want people parking there, they should go through legal means to prevent it.
This is where we completely differ. There's something called being a "good neighbor" and that doesn't end where your property ends. It helps keep society functioning. We think about our actions and the consequences they have on others. The people living on this street can go through their town or city and probably get no overnight parking signs put up, or alternate side of the street parking, or no more than 4 hours parking; anyone of a multitude of rules that will mitigate the problem of this jerk who's trying to get over on airport parking.
But why should they have to? Why should they now have to get a law or regulation enacted to prevent someone from doing something rude, boorish, and inconvenient just because there's nothing that says he can't? Why should then then have to worry about getting up and moving cars around, just because someone who doesn't even live near them is creating a problem?
This is why we have stupid laws.
There are a couple people nearby to where I live who think it's a great idea to run yard sales every weekend. They are on a main road, so there's a lot of traffic. It causes problems, though, with people slowing down to stop or try to see what's sitting out as they roll on by. There have been a number of problems. They've been asked repeatedly by code enforcement not to do this every weekend. The town has used the leverage that their property is not zoned for business. They point to all the other people who hold yard sales and say "we're only doing the same."
My arguments is the people doing this don't know if it's an inconvenience or not. How do you know if parking is a premium in that area? If you have a family with two parents who drive and 2 kids or more who also might drive, you're looking at the possibility of four cars for one house, and someone looking to get over on airport parking is taking up valuable space. The onus is also on the neighbors to provide security. There is no contact to do so, but the idea is that if "something happens" they will call the police, right? Tell me if this guy came back and his car was up on four milk crates with the radio and seats missing, the first thing he'd want is the police to question the neighbors about what they saw and why they didn't report it.
The argument was also that if they didn't want people parking there, they should go through legal means to prevent it.
This is where we completely differ. There's something called being a "good neighbor" and that doesn't end where your property ends. It helps keep society functioning. We think about our actions and the consequences they have on others. The people living on this street can go through their town or city and probably get no overnight parking signs put up, or alternate side of the street parking, or no more than 4 hours parking; anyone of a multitude of rules that will mitigate the problem of this jerk who's trying to get over on airport parking.
But why should they have to? Why should they now have to get a law or regulation enacted to prevent someone from doing something rude, boorish, and inconvenient just because there's nothing that says he can't? Why should then then have to worry about getting up and moving cars around, just because someone who doesn't even live near them is creating a problem?
This is why we have stupid laws.
There are a couple people nearby to where I live who think it's a great idea to run yard sales every weekend. They are on a main road, so there's a lot of traffic. It causes problems, though, with people slowing down to stop or try to see what's sitting out as they roll on by. There have been a number of problems. They've been asked repeatedly by code enforcement not to do this every weekend. The town has used the leverage that their property is not zoned for business. They point to all the other people who hold yard sales and say "we're only doing the same."
See where I'm going with this? How long do you think it will be until we need a permit for a yard sale?
This is how we end up with laws like "Any cattle that crosses state roads must be fitted with a device to gather its feces" or "No person may roller skate on a sidewalk" or "Dynamite is not to be used to catch fish." Things that seem like common sense or being a good citizen are out the window to some people just because there isn't a law expressly forbidding it.
And then you have the Libertarians who think there should be no laws at all and we'll all just manage to police ourselves. Because, yeah, that's worked out so well in the past. People are so considerate of one another that we don't have to worry that someone is going to get murdered because his cow left a patty in someone else's yard, or over a parking space. Before the EPA, corporations did what was good for the environment and we don't need no stinkin' regulations.
That might be true, if humans weren't complete assholes at times.
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This is how we end up with laws like "Any cattle that crosses state roads must be fitted with a device to gather its feces" or "No person may roller skate on a sidewalk" or "Dynamite is not to be used to catch fish." Things that seem like common sense or being a good citizen are out the window to some people just because there isn't a law expressly forbidding it.
And then you have the Libertarians who think there should be no laws at all and we'll all just manage to police ourselves. Because, yeah, that's worked out so well in the past. People are so considerate of one another that we don't have to worry that someone is going to get murdered because his cow left a patty in someone else's yard, or over a parking space. Before the EPA, corporations did what was good for the environment and we don't need no stinkin' regulations.
That might be true, if humans weren't complete assholes at times.
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I've tried to explain this concept to my son so many times. Of course, you know how that went.
ReplyDeleteStupid is as stupid does....
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